Locus Bestsellers   HARDCOVERS Months on list Last month 1) The Confusion, Neal Stephenson (HarperCollins/Morrow) 2 2 2) Wind Rider's Oath, David Weber (Baen) 1 - 3) The Zenith Angle, Bruce Sterling (Ballantine Del Rey) 1 - 4) King of Foxes, Raymond E. Feist (HarperCollins/Eos) 3 3 5) Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris (Ace) 1 - 6) A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins) 1 - 7) Sethra Lavode, Steven Brust (Tor) 2 4 8) Survival, Julie E. Czerneda (DAW) 1 - 9) Balance of Trade, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Meisha Merlin) 3 9 10) Seduced by Moonlight, Laurell K. Hamilton (Ballantine) 3 -   PAPERBACKS 1) The War of the Flowers, Tad Williams (DAW) 1 - 2) Red Thunder, John Varley (Ace) 1 - 3) Dead Witch Walking, Kim Harrison (HarperTorch) 1 - 4) Roma Eterna, Robert Silverberg (Eos) 1 - 5) No Phule Like an Old Phule, Robert Asprin & Peter J. Heck (Ace) 2 3 6) Covenants, Lorna Freeman (Roc) 1 - 7) Nightingale's Lament, Simon R. Green (Ace) 1 - 8) Talon of the Silver Hawk, Raymond E. Feist (HarperTorch) 2 1 9) Darknesses, L. E. Modesitt Jr (Tor) 1 - 10) The Wreck of The River of Stars, Michael Flynn (Tor) 1 -   TRADE PAPERBACKS 1) Pattern Recognition, William Gibson (Berkeley) 4 1 2) The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin) 37 - 3) Altered Carbon, Richard K. Morgan (Ballantine Del Rey) 5 - 4) Broken Angels, Richard K. Morgan (Ballantine Del Rey) 3 4 5) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Del Rey) 1 -   MEDIA-RELATED 1) The Chronicle of Riddick, Alan Dean Foster (Del Rey) 1 - 2) Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Matthew Stover (Del Rey) 3 - 3) Van Helsing, Kevin Ryan (Pocket) 1 - 4) Star Trek, the Next Generation: A Time to Harvest, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (Pocket) 1 - 5) Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: Wicked Willow I: The Darkening, Yvonne Navarro (Simon Spotlight) 1 -   GAMING-RELATED 1) Halo: First Strike, Eric Nylund (Del Rey) 6 1 2) Halo: The Flood, William C. Dietz (Del Rey) 11 2 3) Forgotten Realms: Condemnation, Richard Baker (Wizards of the Coast) 2 - 4) DragonLance: The Search for Power: Dragons from the War of Souls, Margaret Weis, ed. (Wizards of the Coast) 1 - 5) Warhammer 40,000: Crucible of War, Marc Gascoigne & Christian Dunn, eds. (Black Library) 1 - Neal Stephenson's The Confusion firmly trounced the other titles in the hardcover category, stepping up from second to first place. New runner-up: The Child Goddess by Louise Marley (Ace). We had 64 nominees, up from 51 last month. In paperbacks, The War of the Flowers took the field, with Red Thunder and Dead Witch Walking vying for second. New runner-up: Trudi Canavan's Novice (Roc). Nominees: 85, up from 78. Pattern Recognition holds first place in the trade paperback category for the fourth month in a row. New runner-up: Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson (Import). Nominees: 51, up from 49. The Chronicles of Riddick novel took the media-related category with a strong lead in its debut month, with Star Wars: Shatterpoint following in a close second. Nominees: 33, up from 30 last month. Halo: First Strike prevails for the sixth month straight, with Halo: The Flood, in its eleventh appearance on the list, taking second. Nominees: 30, well up from last month. — — Compiled with data from Barnes & Noble (USA), Basilisk Dreams (Canada), Borderlands (CA), Borders Bookstores (USA), Lone Star (TC), Midtown Comics (NY), Mysterious Galaxy (CA), Pages for All Ages (IL), Saint Mark’s (NY), Toadstool (2 in NH), Totem Bookshop (WA), Uncle Hugo’s (MN), University Bookstore (WA), White Dwarf (Canada). Data period: May 2004.

August 2004